Doctor Who fans in for a treat at Lancaster comic festival

Gemma Sherlock

A celebration of comics will ‘kapow’ its way into the city centre for second helpings.

The second Lancaster Comics Day, organised by The Friends of Lancaster Library, will take place on Sunday June 5 in Lancaster’s Main Library.

Drawing largely on local talent, the event will be celebrating a landmark for Doctor Who comics with several creators who have worked on the official magazine, whose 500th issue is published next week, a panel on British humour comics headed up by veteran comics artist and writer Lew Stringer (whose credits include Toxic, The Beano, and Viz), joined by Funny Monsters creator and publisher, Joe Matthews.

John Freeman, co-organiser and comics writer and editor, said: “We didn’t know how Lancaster Comics Day would go down, last year, but it was a huge success. We were delighted last year’s event helped raise over £800 for the library and we hope local comic fans will support us again.”

Former Marvel Comics editor and Sparky comic and Doctor Who writer Tim Quinn, one of Lancaster Comics Day’s popular guests in 2015, is also back this year, armed with copies of his new biography Argh!

Starting his career as a ringboy/clown at Blackpool Tower Circus, he then leapt back in time to work on BBC TV’s The Good Old Days music hall series where he started writing scripts for top comedians.

It was a small jump into the world of comic books where he spent many happy years as scriptwriter, illustrator and editor on such noted titles as The Beano, The Dandy, Sparky, The Topper, Buster, Whoopee!, Bunty, Jackie, Doctor Who Magazine and Whizzer & Chips before heading to America to work for the mighty Marvel Comics Group on the world famous Spider-Man, X-Men and the Incredible Hulk.

Today he’s a presenter for Bay TV Liverpool, tours the UK discussing the humour and nostalgia of comics, runs a management company for recording artists, conducts workshops on cartooning and media and says he dreams of the day he will be bitten by a radioactive flea so that he can finally take over the whole universe.

Local comic creators Andrew Diggle (writer for Marvel Comics, including Captain America), artist Sean Phillips and Doctor Who writer and playwright Eddie Robson will also be talking adventure and superhero comics, along with writer Alex Paknadel.

This year’s Comics Day also features a panel of novelists including AS Chambers, JS Collyer, Eddie Robson and games creator Ken Walton.

With Comic Cake, a games room and face painting, there will be plenty to do and comics to discover.